Reporting Models do not Translate Well: Failing to RegulateCSR Reporting in Spain

Abstract

This paper explores the regulation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting for corporations exceeding 1000 employees introduced in Spain by the Sustainable Economy Law 2/2011 of 4 March. The relevance for this special issue stems from the fact that this law anticipates possible outcomes of the 2014/95/EU Directive to the Spanish context. Furthermore, the Spanish Law has been cited by the EU as a precedent for the Directive. This paper adopts a multi-method approach, based on content analysis and qualitative interviews to portray the state and evolution of such CSR reporting regulation. The results of the content analysis suggest that the regulation did not have any impact in terms of the number of reporters, but it is associated with a slight improvement in the reporting quality of the published reports. Those findings are consistent with the argument made in previous literature indicating that governmental regulation of CSR reporting alone does not guarantee better disclosure levels and that structural elements are necessary to accompany changes in the law. With the help of qualitative interviews with relevant actors, the paper has examined three elements that seem to explain the limited effect of this regulation: (i) competing views about CSR and CSR regulation; (ii) CSR reporting patterns; and (iii) how power was mobilised to suppress the potential of CSR reporting regulation.